Editing Germanium (section)

== Germanium and health ==
Germanium is not considered essential to the health of plants or animals.<ref name="American Cancer Society" /> Germanium in the environment has little or no health impact. This is primarily because it usually occurs only as a trace element in ores and [[carbon]]aceous materials, and the various industrial and electronic applications involve very small quantities that are not likely to be ingested.<ref name="usgs" /> For similar reasons, end-use germanium has little impact on the environment as a biohazard. Some reactive intermediate compounds of germanium are poisonous (see precautions, below).<ref name="Brown Jr">{{cite report |url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/germanium/220798.pdf |publisher=US Geological Surveys |access-date=2008-09-09 |title=Commodity Survey:Germanium |first=Robert D. Jr. |last=Brown |date= |archive-date=2018-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304113236/https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/germanium/220798.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

Germanium supplements, made from both organic and inorganic germanium, have been marketed as an [[alternative medicine]] capable of treating [[leukemia]] and [[lung cancer]].<ref name="acs" /> There is, however, no [[evidence-based medicine|medical evidence]] of benefit; some evidence suggests that such supplements are actively harmful.<ref name="American Cancer Society">{{cite book |publisher=American Cancer Society |title=American Cancer Society Complete Guide to Complementary and Alternative Cancer Therapies |edition=2nd |year=2009 |isbn=978-0944235713 |editor=Ades TB |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americancancerso0000unse/page/360 360–363] |chapter=Germanium |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americancancerso0000unse/page/360}}</ref> [[U.S. Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA) research has concluded that inorganic germanium, when used as a [[nutritional supplement]], "presents potential human [[health hazard]]".<ref name="toxic">{{cite journal |last=Tao |first=S. H. |author2=Bolger, P. M. |date=June 1997 |title=Hazard Assessment of Germanium Supplements |journal=[[Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology]] |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=211–219 |doi=10.1006/rtph.1997.1098 |pmid=9237323 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1229957 |access-date=2019-06-30 |archive-date=2020-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310041729/https://zenodo.org/record/1229957 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Some germanium compounds have been administered by alternative medical practitioners as non-FDA-allowed injectable solutions. Soluble inorganic forms of germanium used at first, notably the citrate-lactate salt, resulted in some cases of [[renal]] dysfunction, [[hepatic steatosis]], and peripheral [[neuropathy]] in individuals using them over a long term. Plasma and urine germanium concentrations in these individuals, several of whom died, were several orders of magnitude greater than [[endogenous]] levels. A more recent organic form, beta-carboxyethylgermanium sesquioxide ([[propagermanium]]), has not exhibited the same spectrum of toxic effects.<ref>{{cite book |author=Baselt, R. |title=Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man |edition=8th |publisher=Biomedical Publications |place=Foster City, CA |date=2008 |pages=693–694}}</ref>

Certain compounds of germanium have low toxicity to [[mammal]]s, but have toxic effects against certain [[bacterium|bacteria]].<ref name="nbb">{{cite book |last=Emsley |first=John |title=Nature's Building Blocks |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2001 |location=Oxford |pages=506–510 |isbn=978-0-19-850341-5}}</ref>

=== Precautions for chemically reactive germanium compounds ===
While use of germanium itself does not require precautions, some of germanium's artificially produced compounds are quite reactive and present an immediate hazard to human health on exposure. For example, [[Germanium tetrachloride]] and [[germane]] (GeH<sub>4</sub>) are a liquid and gas, respectively, that can be very irritating to the eyes, skin, lungs, and throat.<ref name="Gerber 1997 141–146">{{cite journal |first=G. B. |last=Gerber |author2=Léonard, A. |date=1997 |title=Mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and teratogenicity of germanium compounds |journal=Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology |volume=387 |issue=3 |pages=141–146 |doi=10.1016/S1383-5742(97)00034-3 |pmid=9439710 |bibcode=1997MRRMR.387..141G}}</ref>